The top energy trend of 2009: Consumer Power

There might have been a time when the 13.8 quadrillion Btu of energy that Canadians consume every year seemed to magically appear in our electrical outlets, gas tanks and heaters. But in 2009, Canadian consumers proved they were starting to take a closer look at all those quadrillions of British thermal units and, more importantly, that they’re ready to manage their energy themselves.

Canadians are increasingly seeking out information on their energy at events like the Alberta Conference on Energy Literacy, and voicing their opinions at events like CanWEA’s annual conference. The Centre for Energy even took a virtual Canadian road trip with Norm to see how energy is produced and consumed in places across the country. Educated consumers make better energy choices, and Ontario proved the point during its Count Me In! Community Challenge where awareness did for energy use what diet does to those few extra pounds. Canadian consumers are taking control of their energy, and that often means finding ways to use less.

Over the last year, Flow has looked at a range of ways to improve your energy efficiency at home, from “spring cleaning” to laundry. Where consumers used to only interact with their electricity meters on a monthly bill, the increasing use of smart meters in Canadian provinces like Ontario, where the government hopes to have one installed in every home and business, provides a set of tools for energy-conscious Canadians. Even the way we get from point A to point B is getting more efficient, with both car and bike sharing programs reducing the energy required in the transportation sector, where 31 per cent of our country’s energy is consumed. Add in “hypermilling” driving practices and it’s clear that increasing control over Canada’s energy spreads from our homes onto our streets. Canadians aren’t always “warm” to energy efficiency, but the future still looks bright.

In the future, we can also expect energy to get even closer to home with microgeneration. Vancouver’s mandatory electric car chargers in new condo developments are will bring energy Vancouverites usually buy at gas stations directly into their homes. And as projects like the Enmax Solabode, a hyper-efficient home built using already available technology, show: we’re a lot closer than we realize to that future. That’s good news for a national consumer base hungry for more control.

In a national Canadian Centre for Energy Information survey conducted this year (376KB PDF) 92 per cent of respondents said the energy sector was important to the Canadian economy and 73 per cent said the energy sector was important to them. A full 59 per cent also felt disconnected from decision making on energy policies, but this year’s Flow articles showed that energy decisions are increasingly driven by Canadians themselves, sometimes one backyard at a time.

Yes, in my backyard

Decentralized power is one of the most fundamental ways that Canadian energy is changing. Instead of relying entirely on distant power plants and the thousands of kilometres of wire that connects their grid, Canadians are finding ways to literally generate power in their own backyards.

Because it can be installed on many of the surfaces that otherwise go unused on a home, solar power has provided early signs of the potential for decentralized power, such as in solar thermal technology designed to heat your water. Potential sites for solar power include otherwise unused rooftops and even mausoleums and outhouses. But it’s not just about putting existing technology to work in new places.

Newer technologies include paintable solar panels, panels designed for microscopic machines and, of course, a range of gadgets, gadgets and still more gadgets. Meanwhile, urban wind turbines might eventually transform the way our cities look, even while inventions like kinetic plates take advantage of the ways we already live by using of North America’s beloved drive-throughs.

The fight to bring energy even more completely into Canadian homes hasn’t always been an easy one, but with an increasing array technologies for power generation in our daily lives, it’s safe bet that the energy we use will increasingly be the energy we produce.